Effective high frequency (HF) antennas, which are compatible with the varied and demanding requirements peculiar to military tactical communication, are by no means easily engineered. Military radios operate from 2 to 30 MHz or higher and vary in power from watts to kilowatts. The communication systems are often fixed, but must be transportable by vehicular, man-portable, or airborne means, and may employ ground wave or ionospheric propagation over short, medium or long range paths.
The required mobility would suggest small antenna size, but electrical performance will be compromised if the antenna is made too small in terms of the wavelength(s). The necessary broad frequency range which typically spans four octaves complicates the design of efficient antennas.
The conventional log-periodic antenna generally offers good efficiency and broad bandwidth and has been used heretofore for military communication purposes. A commercially available log-periodic antenna has been utilized as the base station antenna for military communication purposes. While this antenna is satisfactory in the above-mentioned respects, it is unwieldy, difficult and time consuming to deploy, and expensive. Also, it lacks the desired propagation flexibility off times required by the military.